


Little Bird

by skim_milkk



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baby Yoda is a girl, Cities, Din Djarin - Freeform, F/M, First time writing on AO3, Foster Care, Hiding, Human Grogu | Baby Yoda, Modern Era, New York City, No Smut, No helmet, Planet Sorgan (Star Wars), Please Don't Hate Me, Police, Star Wars - Freeform, The Child - Freeform, The Din/Omera relationship is not the main focus, Travel, Violence, this is different
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:27:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26806603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skim_milkk/pseuds/skim_milkk
Summary: Former police officer-turned bounty hunter Din Djarin is sent out to retrieve a mysterious asset, and realizes his ties to the corrupt New York Police Department may not be completely cut off.Slow updates.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Omera
Comments: 17
Kudos: 16





	1. A Special Request

It was a pretty simple job. A 40-year old man had failed to show up to court to proceed with the divorce from his wife. Skipping bail or failing to show up to court were probably the two easiest jobs Din got. Although, he wasn’t complaining at all. Way too often was he assigned to jobs that ended in violence. Let’s just say that Din was happy the Guild could pay for most of his hospital bills.  
Din looked down for a second from the road to the tracking fob. It had the address of where the man was and the fob was beeping quicker and quicker as Din kept driving. He parked in what looked like an abandoned alleyway and decided to continue his search on foot.

He walked a few blocks, keeping his eyes on the tracking fob. He came to the Mos Eisley restaurant, and the fob was beeping like crazy. This must be where he is. Din gave a quick check to make sure the beskar under his vest was placed correctly, and moved his right hand down to his hip where he felt the gun. Despite it being a simple job, Din could never be too sure about if people were armed with guns or other weapons. He then entered the restaurant. As expected, it was filled to the brim with loud New Yorkers, many large groups sitting at the bar, laughing and chugging down beers. There was a football game playing on the television. Din had to hold the fob closer to his ear to be able to hear the incessant beeping. He started to walk around the restaurant. They were able to put a face to the client, but the restaurant was dimly lit to avoid a glare on the T.V, so Din couldn’t see faces very well.  
“Excuse me, sir? Are you expecting someone?” Din looked over, a bit startled at the sudden voice. A host was at the booth, two menus in his hand, looking like he was about to lead the man to a table.  
“No, looking for someone actually. Should be at the bar. Thanks.” Din quickly replied before walking away, not giving the host enough time to answer him. “Where are you. . .” Din mumbled under his breath. He was getting closer. There, in the corner. Din could just make out his face from the little bit of sunlight pouring in through the window. Din walked over, groaning internally when he saw there were two people at the table, most likely hanging out together to watch the game. 

“Hi,” The man said when Din walked over to the table, the greeting almost sounding like a question.  
“Wes Tomko. You skipped your court date today. You are charged with Failure to Appear in Court, which is a criminal offense. I’m going to have to bring you in to face criminal charges.” Din stated. As the words were coming out of his mouth, Din could see Wes’s face turning from confusion to worry. The friend, who had been quiet up to this point, stood up to face Din. He was a big man, the same height as Din, but the hunter wasn’t intimidated. He faced this often: people trying to look tough and threatening in order to get out of Din’s bounty.  
“Hey, listen,” The friend said quietly, inches from Din’s face. He felt something lightly hitting his vest, he looked down and saw a wad of cash in the man’s hand. “You take it and leave my brother alone, okay? These court dates aren’t going well for him, he doesn’t want to go. Don’t his rights say he doesn’t have to?” DIn wanted to chuckle at the man’s, or brother’s stupidity.  
“Not for him. Your brother failed to show up to court when he said he would. He’s a criminal.” Din said, keeping his voice even, not intimidated by the man standing over him. The hunter looked back over at the table, wanting to speed up the process a bit. Except, Wes was no longer there. Din shoved the brother off of him, and looked around the restaurant for any signs of a man running. Nothing.  
“Shit!” Din muttered under his breath. He quickly walked all around the restaurant. The constant beep of the tracking fob was no longer there. It was now getting slower and slower by the second. Wes had left the restaurant for sure. 

Just as he was leaving the restaurant he felt a hard hit to his back which sent him toppling forward. Din’s hands stopped his fall, and he quickly turned onto his back to see who had hit him. It was the brother. Just as the guy was about to slam his foot down on Din’s stomach, he rolled over, using his leg to swipe the brother’s legs out from under him. He landed on his tailbone with a hard WHACK. The brother groaned out in pain, laying on his back to avoid pressure. Din lifted him up slightly by his arm, only to give him a couple good punches to face for extra measure. The brother didn’t look like he was getting up anytime soon, so Din got out the tracking fob to continue to chase down his bounty. 

He wasn’t hard to find luckily. Wes hadn’t gone far, so the fob quickly picked up with beeps. Din found him in an alleyway, head tucked between his knees and shoulders shaking. He was crying. Din walked over to him, and took his already folded hands and cuffed him. Too easy.  
“No, no, wait! Please!” Wes begged, jumping a little when he saw Din right in front of him. Din didn’t listen though, lifting him up to his feet by the arm and leading him back to the car. “I-I don’t want to go back. My kids will be taken away from me! Please! You have to under-”  
“Listen, if you don’t shut up yourself I’ll make you shut up.” Din cut him off. He had been in the bounty business for about 10 years now, and he quickly got tired of the mindless babbling of his bounties when he brought them in. There was no use to it. It wasn’t his job to decide what would happen to his kids or anything like that, he was just bringing in the fugitive to get paid. Luckily, Wes shut up after that, although as Din drove he could hear a quiet cry or sniffle from the back. 

**********

Din put the fob down on the table, as well as the small device that was given to him with information about Wes Tomko. Greef Karga looked up at him surprised, taking a sip of his beer.  
“Well that was fast,” Greef said with a chuckle, seeing as he had only given him the fob yesterday.  
“What can I say, I work quickly,” Din said, sliding into the booth across from Greef.  
“You certainly do,” The man replied, digging through his pockets until he brought out a little bag. He put it on the table and slid it over to Din. The hunter opened the bag, taking out the wad of cash and coins. He counted it carefully for putting it back in. You could never be too sure with Guild business. He had known Greef since he joined the Guild, but every Guild member only worked for him or herself, and sometimes they were cheapskates. Too many times had he heard stories of Guild leaders ‘accidently’ giving out the wrong money to hunters for their bounties. It had even happened to Din a couple times when he first joined. It happened way too often to new members, and no one cared enough to track down the right money bag for them. So, many new members were broke and powerless. 

“Well, Din, what are you going to do now? Relax in your apartment for a few days? I don’t know, maybe go to a party?”  
“I want my next job,” Din said. Karga looked up at him incredulously.  
“Already? Djarin, work isn’t going anywhere. Relax for a couple days for God’s sake!” Greef told him. Din simply stared at him. Yes, there was work now, but what about next month? The Guild would often have months where there were plenty of jobs for everyone, and other months where practically no one had work. So, Din always took work when he could. Luckily, his apartment was paid for by the Guild right next to the hub for it. He had to pay for food, weapons, and anything else he may need. 

Greef sighed before putting a bunch of devices on the tables for bounties. Din looked through each one, most of them the same. The pay was weak though.  
“You got anything else?” Din asked. Greef looked down at the table for a few seconds.  
“Well, there is one. An asset very high in demand. I’ve been asked to give fobs to every hunter. No one has been able to get it yet.”  
“Do you have the device for it?”  
“Nope, no device. We don’t even have a lot of information for it. A female, 50 years old.” Din looked up at Greef.  
“That’s all? She’s going to be impossible to find!” Din said.  
“Yep, that’s why no one has gotten her yet. You’ll need to go to the client that asked for the asset to get the fob. He wouldn’t give any to me. Here, I’ll write you the address.” Greef got out a pen and paper and started writing it. This is weird, Din thought to himself. Not once in his whole career in the Guild had heard about an asset with such little information. It was either an extremely private situation or something more that was going on. Greef handed him the piece of paper.  
“I’m sure you’ll be able to find her Din. You’re one of the best in the biz. Plus, I’ve heard it’s a pretty big reward.” Greef said, then he gave a few pokes to the worn-down beskar underneath his vest. Din gave him a questioning look. Was the reward beskar? That was hard to find these days. If that was the case, Din was going to be a whole lot more confused and suspicious of the situation. 

Din got up and headed out of the Guild hub to find this client, feeling very on-edge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This work has been inspired by CoffeeQuill, specifically their series 'Our Roots', as well as Azertyrobaz and their series 'Reckoner'! Both are Mandalorian Modern A.U stories and I highly recommend reading them. Both of the series inspired this work and I want to give them credit for that as well as any borrowed/similar ideas.


	2. A Mysterious Situation

Din walked out of the Guild hub, the piece of paper with the address on it held tightly in his hand. “Big Cement Building On The End Of Lincoln Street, New York City, New York”, it read. Din had never heard of a more ridiculous street name. He knew of Lincoln Street, almost out of the city. However, the fact that the building had no official name or number put Din even more on edge than he was before. He walked to his car, and on his way he passed Mos Eisley and noticed that the spot where Wes Tomko’s brother lay before when Din had left him was now gone. Din would have to be on the lookout for him or anyone that would be involved with him. Din hadn’t said his own name, but in New York City it was easy to match the face to a person, especially since Din was pretty sure his files were still in the NYPD for whatever reason. That wasn’t a top priority on his list right now though, it was tracking down this asset.  
Din got in his car, checking the glove compartment to make sure his pistol was still in it, wrapped in the very useful beskar cloth. He then checked the back, where a large blanket was covering an impressive amount of weapons he may need. He also kept a pile of ever-changing license plates to keep switching out on his vehicle. When he first became a bounty hunter he had people attacking and following him all of the time, and he soon learned the art of switching out license plates. Since then, it hasn’t happened as often as long as he keeps getting new plates. 

Din drove to Lincoln Street, a bit far from the Guild Hub, but nothing compared to his common drives to different states. As he was driving, Din couldn’t help but keep thinking about the asset, and how fishy the whole situation was. Who was running this whole show? How many people were involved? How was the 50-year-old female tied into this? He normally didn’t think about the story or situation around his bounties, but the fact that there was no device, very little information, and that he had to go to the client for the tracking fob made Din very suspicious and a little nervous.  
He slowed down once he turned onto Lincoln Street, keeping his eyes open for the cement building. He quickly found it at the end of the street; almost on a side road. The building was run down, looking abandoned. The only evidence that people were there was the few rather nice cars in the lot. Din gulped when he saw the New York Police Department car parked there. What the hell is going on? Din asked himself as he walked to the pathetic excuse of a door. There was a security camera next to the door. Din held up his Bounty Hunter’s Guild card. The machine quickly scanned it and Din was granted passage. Whether or not that was a good thing, Din did not know. Right as he walked in, he was met with the faces of two police officers and two other guards that weren’t officers but still looked intimidating. Din hovered his hand over the pistol as he passed through the guards and they followed him. He turned a corner and was met with even more armed men and women. Standing in the middle of them looked to be some sort of doctor or scientist, and standing next to him was the chief of the New York Police Department.  
Din stopped in his steps, shocked at who was staring back at him.  
“Din Djarin! Good to see you!” The chief said menacingly, walking over to Din and patting him on his padded shoulder. He shoved him away  
“Moff Gideon.” Din said, voice unwavering.  
“I have to say, I’m quite surprised to see you here. Although, after seeing your work in the police department, I doubt you’ll have trouble bringing this asset to me.” Gideon said. The doctor looked surprised.  
“Oh, you two know each other?”  
“Quite well actually. I was Djarin’s boss for a while when we both used to work in the NYPD.” Din, wanting to get out of the building as soon as possible, stepped forward.  
“What the fuck is going on here? What is this whole thing?” He gestured to the whole cement building. “And why did you leave the department?” Moff gazed at him angrily as he spoke.  
“Isn’t it a rule in the Guild to not ask questions? Simply, do your job?” Din went quiet. “You see, Djarin, this asset is of most importance to me. So much so, that I gave tracking fobs to almost every member of the Guild. Yet, no one has found it.” Moff pulled out a fob from his pocket.  
“Plus, I have a very handsome reward for whoever brings her back to me.” Moff walked over to a table, and from underneath he pulled out a large briefcase. He faced it towards Din and popped it open. Inside was an enormous amount of beskar metal. Din, though he didn’t show it in his face, was baffled. Beskar was a rare metal, and it was getting harder and harder to find. You were lucky to find 5 or 6 in a blue moon, let alone hundreds. Din picked one up, examining it to make sure it was real. It was. He looked at Moff. Did he really want to get involved with this man? Moff Gideon was not a good person to get tangled up in. He was fired from the police department shortly after Din quit, getting caught up in his own crimes. Din hadn’t heard or seen from him until now. That was a couple years. He looked down at the Beskar. Would he ever get a reward like this ever again? He put back the Beskar, and took the tracking fob. Moff smiled at him, closing the briefcase. “Bring her to me, and I want her dead.” Din nodded and gave them all one last look before turning around and walking back to his car. He was going to retrieve this asset. 

**********

Questions were racing through Din’s head as he drove his car wherever the tracking fob beeped the most. What was this mission? Who was the asset? Why was Moff Gideon, his old boss, leading it? Was anyone else involved? Who were those other police officers and guards? Din took a deep breath, trying to stay focused on finding the asset. Maybe finding her and asking some questions would give some answers. Then again, Guild members weren’t supposed to ask questions, just do. But, maybe Din could subtly slip in a few. Besides, this was his old boss; he had certain rights to know, right?  
Din drove for hours. He stopped to get gas, use the bathroom, and get food along the way at a gas station a few times. It was in the early hours of the morning, and Din’s eyes were heavy as he looked at the empty road in front of him, the trees and more forestry parts of New York cascading along the horizon as the morning sun peeked over. Colors of orange, yellow and pink fell onto the trees and Din’s car. He knew he should’ve felt peaceful, driving silently along, the only sound being of the quiet motor of his car, and the sound of other cars’ motors occasionally as they passed. However, like the night before, his mind was still racing. He kept thinking about possible solutions or reasons to his questions. There was still uncertainty though, and there probably would always be, even after returning the asset to Gideon.  
The tracking fob was slowly beeping quicker as Din drove on. He stopped when the tracking beacon was repeatedly beeping, almost at its max. This must be the place, Din thought as he messily parked the car a ways away from where the building was. Much like the cement building Din met Gideon in, this brick building was hidden by the trees. There were many people guarding it. Many were armed, and others looked intimidating and very muscular. People were hidden in high trees with binoculars, and Din noticed some surveillance cameras as well. Whoever the asset was was probably dangerous, seeing how heavily guarded it was. Din ducked down behind a rock, using his own binoculars to scope out the area, thinking about a plan of attack. Then, he heard feet behind him. He immediately pulled out his pistol and turned around, pointing it at the stranger. The stranger pointed his gun right back at him, though his face looked fearful.  
“Whoa, whoa, sorry-d-didn’t mean to frighten you. Are you here for the. . .” The stranger pulled out the tracking fob. Din nodded his head precariously. “Yeah, me too. Whaddya say we ambush this place together? It looks like too many people for one person to handle.” Din looked back down at all the guards. He preferred to work alone, but the stranger was right, there were too many for him alone. Din sighed, then lowered his gun.  
“Fine. We’ll split the reward,” the two men shook on it.  
“I’m IG by the way, the now-named-stranger said. Din simply nodded. He knew IG was probably expecting a name from him too, but he usually didn’t tell anyone unless he was directly asked.  
The two headed down the small hill leading to the brick building. Both went in different directions, trying not to be seen.  
“Hey!” Well, that didn’t last long. Din ran as he shot, hearing the yells of a couple people he shot. He hid behind a board, hearing people shouting at each other and IG as he went to hid close to Din. Din quickly ducked out to shoot, getting twice the amount of shots back. He quickly noticed a rifle on the other end of the lot.  
“IG, cover for me!” Din yelled, and once he got the nod he took a deep breath and came out from his hiding spot. He shot as best he could while he ran, hearing IG’s gun shooting too. However, 2 large men came barreling toward him, full bodies covered in armor and protection. They smashed into Din, knocking him to the ground. Din groaned at the weight on top of him. He attempted to move his arm to get access to his fire gadget, but one of the men had him pinned down, while the other grabbed Din’s gun out of his hand, pointing it at him. Din found his footing, bringing his legs up and towards him, he kicked as hard as he could at the man holding him down. He got him square in the nose. The man lost his grip enough for Din to roll over, using his grappling hook to bring down the man holding his gun. He grabbed the gun as the man passed out, and shot the other. Both of them landed in a heap on top of one another. He still heard IG’s gunshots, so he hurried to grab the rife. He got it and began shooting. That, combined with IG’s gun, they shot down mostly everyone. The few that they didn't get, Din and IG took down in a hand-to-hand combat. The only damage done to the two men by the end was many bruises, a bloody nose to Din, and some scrapes and cuts on IG.  
Din used the rifle to blast open the heavily locked door. He and IG held their guns up as they scoped out the inside, but no one was in there. Din pulled out the incessant tracking fob, the beeping getting impossibly quicker. He stopped when he reached a box. The tracking fob stopped. This was it. Din looked around the box first. This was a 50-year-old female. However, after a few minutes of searching, he couldn’t find anyone. IG looked too, and gave Din a confused face when he couldn’t find anyone. Then, they were small cries, like a baby. Both turned to the box. IG pointed his gun as Din slowly opened the box. Inside, was a baby.  
The baby was looking up at them with big brown teary eyes. Long eyelashes, and hair a matted mess. The baby had smears of dirt all over its face and body, which had no sort of covering except for a diaper which seemed long passed due for a change. Din didn’t know a lot about babies, but she looked to be very young, maybe 6 months old? Both men held up their fobs. It was still quiet. Was this the asset? A baby?  
“Wait, they said fifty-years-old. . .” Din mumbled. He looked to IG. “Did they trick us?” IG shrugged.  
“Maybe. Sure seems like it. Perhaps it’s an evolved human? Perhaps it’ll live for many centuries.” Din looked back down at her. Their speaking had made her quiet, now looking back and forth between Din and IG. “We’ll never know,” IG sighed, pointing the gun at the baby. Din quickly looked over to him.  
“No. We’ll bring her in alive.”  
“But Moff Gideon said-” Din put his gun back in its sling, hearing the sound of IG’s body hitting the floor. He kneeled down to the baby, who looked frightened again by the gun shot. He looked at her, reaching out a gloved finger and wiggling it slightly. She reached out with a tiny hand, smiling a bit, showing off a few teeth. Din sighed. 

This was a lot more complicated than he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think of the story so far? Am i going to fast? I always like to hear people's opinions on my writing so I can improve. So please comment any suggestions or thoughts, just be kind :)  
> Also, updates for this book will probably be slow because I'm usually drowning in school and right now I'm in the process of moving.


	3. Aftermath

“Bullshit fifty-years-old!” Din mumbled under his breath, getting into the driver’s seat of his car after making a few alterations to his car for the baby. It was tempting, but Din decided against putting the baby on the floor of the passenger’s seat. He was already in some sketchy business, and if he were to get pulled over for any reason and a cop saw the baby in the passenger's seat, it just wouldn’t end well. He had thrown away the blankets that were in the box that the baby was found in. And by ‘throwing away’ Din had simply thrown them in the back corner of his car. He had a few tissues and some water and he did the best he could to clean the dirt smears on the baby. He was sad to find that some of the dirt stains turned out to be bruises that tainted her soft baby skin. While Din considered himself to be pretty tough after being in the NYPD and now a bounty hunter, he didn’t want to even begin thinking about the atrocities this baby might have gone through. 

The soiled diaper stayed on. Din didn’t have any sort of covering that would substitute for a diaper. He would have to make a stop at a gas station it seemed. The kid would soon be out of his hands, but for the time being he could at least make her a little bit more comfortable. He wrapped her up in a blanket he had in the back for nights he slept in his car and put her back in the little box. He did his best to buckle in the box, but it seemed seatbelts weren’t made for square shaped things because the seat belt didn’t do much to ‘belt’ her in. Din would just have to drive a bit more carefully. He could manage, even though with his job history the words ‘drive’ and ‘carefully’ were usually never used in the same sentence. 

Din wasn’t quite sure where to go. It was getting late. The distance from where he was back to Gideon was far, and he was tired. He pulled out his phone and first looked up where the closest gas station was, and then where the closest motel was. Both drives weren't too far. It wouldn’t kill him to rent a motel room for one night. He had the money. He looked up in his rearview to the kid. She was hitting her hands against the box, looking all around her with an amazement in her eyes that could really only be found in a baby’s eyes; experiencing and seeing new things in the world for the first time. Din saw a tired look in her eyes, and knew that she wasn’t far from dreamland. He started the car and began driving. 

Like most other car drives, Din’s mind began drifting as he drove further away from the rural patches of New York back into the more urban areas. Why had they said fifty years old? Had he been tricked? Maybe this was an evolved human, and that was why it had been such private business. He didn’t know what an evolved baby was supposed to be like though. To him, she seemed like a normal baby: uncoordinated movements, entranced by the simplest of things, and yelling out random strings of sounds.

Din pulled into the gas station. He looked through the window of the building and saw that there weren’t many people inside, which gave Din a sense of relief. He was a bit on edge about bringing a baby into the store with him. So far she had been happy and mostly quiet. However, Din knew babies were like ticking time bombs, and they could all of a sudden start crying and screaming at any given moment. He grew up with many kids in his neighborhood. He played with a lot of younger children so he wasn’t completely oblivious to how kids worked, but he wouldn’t call himself an expert.   
“Okay, just please be quiet.” Din almost whispered to the kid as he lifted her out of the box. It was now dark and a bit chilly so he made sure to wrap the blanket around her shoulders and held her close. 

Din went as fast as he could. He grabbed some wipes but got a little stuck on the diapers. How were there so many different types? He picked the package with the picture of the baby that looked as close to the one in his possession. He also grabbed a sandwich for himself for dinner, and a banana for the baby. He hoped at the motel he could get a small bowl and fork to be able to mash it up for her. Din held his breath at the checkout. Just a little bit longer and then he could get out of here. As the cashier was ringing up his things, he felt a sharp tug on his hair.   
“Ow!” He winced. He looked over at the baby resting on his hip, who had one hand firmly grasping a chunk of his unruly and tangled hair in her saliva-drenched tiny hand. She giggled, tugging on it again and letting out a series of excited (and quite loud) babbles. The cashier looked up at the two, chuckling a little before continuing his job. “Stop that.” He said, taking her hand and gently unravelling it from his hair. She whined, but then got distracted by the tiny balls of lint on the blanket keeping her warm. Din quickly paid for the items before practically running out of there. 

Once Din got to the car again he quickly fished out the diapers and wipes from the bag. He laid out one of the baby’s old grubby blankets to use as a changing mat over his car seats. He took off the blanket keeping the child warm and laid her down. She started crying then, probably from the cold of air. Din’s whole body immediately tensed up and got hot with stress.   
“Shh, I’m sorry! Please stop!” Din pleaded, but of course the baby paid no mind to Din’s plea. 

Din cleaned her up as quickly as he could, while also making sure he got her clean. He had a bit of trouble with getting the diaper on correctly, but he eventually figured it out and once the baby was wrapped in the blanket again, the loud cries stopped. Din let out a breath of relief. He couldn’t believe a baby was stressing out an ex-New York police officer turned bounty hunter. Din had been a part of dealing with gangs, criminals, drug dealers, and many other dangerous people. Yet, here he was. Stressed out because of a baby. Din sighed, strapping the baby back into her box before continuing onto the motel. 

As he was driving, Din received a phone call from Greef Karga. He heard the kid let out a startled shriek as the sound of the phone ringing blasted out of the speakers of his car. He clicked ‘answer’ on his steering wheel.   
“Djarin! I see you have the asset!”   
“I do,” Din replied in a much less enthusiastic voice than Karga.   
“Congratulations, my friend! I can’t wait to see you again so I can properly congratulate you. Is she there? Or have you already dropped her off with the client?”   
“She’s here. It’ll probably be an all night drive,” Din left out the motel part, praying to himself on the inside that the baby wouldn’t make a sound.   
“Well, I don’t hear her so hopefully that means she won’t bring you much trouble on the drive,” Karga said.   
“Yes,”   
“Well, I’ll leave it to you, Djarin! Good luck, and I hope the asset brings you a great reward.” Karga hung up, and Din once again let out a sigh of relief. 

Din pulled into the motel’s parking lot, The Blurrg. It was a bit run-down. The sign’s lights were flickering, and some of the paint on the building was chipped. But, it would be alright for one night. Besides, Din would easily be able to fight off anyone that was violent or tried to break into their room. He grabbed the few belongings he had in his car, along with the stuff he bought at the gas station, and the baby who was quickly losing her fight to sleep.   
He entered the low-lit lobby. At the front desk was only one man.   
“Hello! Welcome to The Blurrg! My name’s Kuiil, the owner.” The old man smiled as Din approached the desk.   
“Hi. One room, one bed. Just for the night.” Din said. The baby whined, rubbing her eyes and resting her head on Din’s shoulder. His cheeks heated up again, baffled by the fact that he’d only known this baby for less than 24 hours, yet she trusted him enough to fall asleep on him. 

One thing that always fascinated Din about children was their trust in people. The trusted people so quickly. If someone showed them an ounce of trust the child would want to hang with them for the whole day. It completely countered what Din was taught for most of his life: trust no one or, be slow to trust. It made the man sad to think that at some point in a child’s life there’s a certain trust that’s broken, turning their hearts fearful and cautious, instead of the ones that only longed for a friend to play with or one that simply needed someone to help them with the things they were incapable of doing at such a young age. Oh, to be that age. 

“Very well,” Said Kuiil. He looked at the baby who was now asleep. “She’s adorable, you know,” he smiled. Din, not wanting to dive into his current situation with a stranger simply said, “thank you.” Then, Din remembered something. “Do you by any chance have a bowl and a fork?”   
“There are a couple styrofoam bowls and some plastic forks in the rooms. Will that do?” Kuiil asked.   
“Yes, that’s perfect.” Din said. Since she was now asleep, Din didn’t know if she would eat tonight. It was nice knowing the things would be there in case he needed them though. 

Din paid Kuiil for the room, he got the key and brought the few belongings they had between them up to the room, careful not to jostle the girl around too much. The motel was quiet given the late hour. The inside looked a lot better than the outside. The walls had yellow wall-paper that looked inviting, and when he opened the door to their room there were no stains or broken furniture or strange odors like he had been expecting. He carefully laid the baby down in the middle of the bed, making sure to keep her wrapped up in the blankets. He felt bad that she didn’t have any clothes, but there wasn’t really any reason for him to buy them when she would no longer be with him tomorrow. He put some pillows around her to prevent her from falling off of the bed.   
Din took off his vest, letting out a satisfied breath when the heavy, hot, and constricting clothing was finally off of him, leaving him his long sleeve shirt. He took a quick shower to get rid of the dirt and sweat and blood from today’s work. He then slipped on a pair of sweatpants with no shirt and did a few quick stretches. His job was physically demanding and often left him extremely sore. He didn’t have the money to get his muscles worked on, so he did his own stretching which helped some. He ate his dinner in silence, thinking about tomorrow’s task. He looked over at the sleeping child. What were their plans for her? What made her different from any other baby? Was she sick? Were her parents dead? Had she gone missing? One of the most difficult parts about being in the Guild was the no questions asked rule. Most of the time he was fine with abiding by it, but in some cases he yearned to know more about the assets he brought in. 

Just as Din was about to turn off the lights and finally get some sleep, the baby started whimpering and moving around. Din didn’t move a muscle, being as quiet as possible next to the bed. Unfortunately, that didn’t work and the baby began crying, sitting up and looking at Din as tears streamed down her face. Din picked her up, bouncing her in his arms. That seemed to help a little, but the cries were still prevailing.   
“What’s wrong? Have a nightmare?” Din asked, trying to figure out the problem. The baby shoved, or, attempted to shove her fist in her mouth, muffling the cries. “Oh! Are you hungry? Okay, hold on,” Din said, trying to keep himself calm. Again, Din Djarin, a bounty hunter, getting stressed out by a baby. 

Din put the baby back on the bed and quickly found the fork, bowl, and banana. He peeled the fruit quickly and mashed it up as best as he could with the fork.   
“Okay, okay,” Din said, sitting down on a chair next to the table. He sat the baby on his lap again and held the fork with the banana up to her mouth. After studying it for a second, she opened her mouth and accepted the fruit, and Din silently cheered in victory.   
The kid ended up eating most of the banana, and when she was finished and Din had cleaned her he sat her on the bed again. He was dead tired from the day’s work, and couldn’t wait for his head to hit that pillow. He put his phone on the bed, and it lit up right after with a text from Karga. Din decided to ignore it so he could tidy up quickly. However, when he turned back around his phone was levitating

His phone. Was levitating. Just, hanging there in midair. 

Din stepped back a little.   
“What the fu. . .” He mumbled. His eyes went from the phone to the baby. She was sitting up, eyes closed, and one of her tiny hands was raised in the air. Was she doing this? Din watched for another few seconds before the phone dropped back down on the bed and the baby fell backwards; back asleep. Din stayed frozen in his spot for another minute, not believing what his eyes just saw. So the baby knew some sort of magic? Is this why she was so wanted? What was the purpose of this said magic? Din had no clue. He had no idea what to think. Should he be scared of her now? Other than the magic hand thing, she seemed completely normal. Din wondered if Moff Gideon knew this, and it was why he wanted this child. What if it was for a different reason? 

Din, deciding he should go to sleep instead of worrying about it more, carefully laid down on the bed, careful not to wake up the baby. As he was closing his eyes, he felt the baby turn, and then the feeling of small hands curling around his arm as soft puffs of breath left the baby’s mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooo bit of a quicker update! Let me know what you thought about it; what do you think is going to happen in future chapters?   
> I looked it up and the name Din means religion, faith, or way of life! I thought that was cool since the Mandalorain saying is, "This is the way." It also means calm in Vietnamese. Ah, I just love the name Din!


	4. Rogue

For the first time in months, Din’s alarm woke him up. Normally, he only turned on the alarm for an extra precaution, but he usually woke up before the alarm went off. He groaned, rolling over to grab his phone and turn it off. 5:30 in the morning. He groaned again, rubbing his face and sitting up. He looked over at the baby, who thankfully hadn’t woken up from the alarm. She had kept Din up all night; waking up again and again. A few times she only needed to feel Din’s body next to her’s, but other times it took awhile for her to fall asleep. Din didn’t know much in the art of soothing kids, but he started with the few methods he knew and if those didn’t work, he just had to improvise. 

As much as his sore and tired body pleaded for him to just roll over and go back to sleep, Din needed to get the kid to Moff Gideon, and he still had a ways to go before he would get there. He finally got the will to stand up out of bed. He left the child sleeping, and tried to be as quiet as possible as he put on his clothes, vest, and the weapons he kept on him at all times. He brushed his teeth, ran his fingers through his hair and called it good. He then packed up the little belongings he and the kid brought up with them to the hotel room. He carefully picked up the child and nestled her head on his shoulder, holding his breath as he adjusted her body against his. Not even a squeak came from her. Din let out a breath of relief, and left the room. 

“Up early, I see,” Kuill smiled as they once again met at the front desk. “We don’t offer a full breakfast, but there’s free coffee, bananas, and bagels with cream cheese if you’re interested.” The old man smiled. Din looked over at the small section of the lobby Kuiil was gesturing to, and indeed, there were plates and baskets of the food and drinks. The bounty hunter wanted to avoid as many stops as he could today. Din checked out of the room, a task that proved to be difficult since there was a sleeping child in his arms so only one hand was available. He then grabbed coffee, a bagel with cream cheese, and the banana, hoping he could either figure out a way to mash it up again or hope that the kid could eat it whole. He hadn’t noticed many teeth in the kids mouth, a couple maybe? Definitely not enough to be eating hard foods.   
“Thank you for staying,” he heard Kuill call out as he was leaving the motel. Din stopped quickly, giving Kuill a smile and nod. 

The kid woke up slightly when Din opened the hotel’s doors. It was early still, and the sun hadn’t yet warmed up the city, despite it being late-April. She whined in Din’s arms.   
“Shh,” he whispered, bouncing the baby a bit as he walked on to his car, trying to get her back to sleep. “Go to sleep,” he mumbled, getting closer to the car. Luckily, cries never came from the girl and within a couple more minutes she settled in his arms. He buckled the kid in and got in the driver’s seat. Din turned around and peeled in the banana, breaking off a piece for the kid. She looked at it wondrously, inspecting the fruit. She then squeezed it in her fist, making the mush of the banana seep through the fingers and palm, dripping onto the blanket in her lap. She giggled as she opened the fist again and began eating the banana off of her hand. Din sighed at the mess that was already covering the kid. Oh well, as long as it stayed contained in the box. The same process continued for longer than Din would’ve liked, but eventually the banana was gone and he could finally start the car. He spread the cream cheese onto his bagel and ate it as he began driving. 

They had been driving for about an hour now. The baby had fallen asleep eventually, after a good twenty minutes of constant happy babbles from the energetic baby. Din had to reach his arm back twice once he saw the seatbelt making its way to the kid’s mouth. Now, it was quiet. Din had turned the radio on a very low volume, to the point where he couldn’t even decipher what song was playing, but it kept his mind from drifting. Thoughts about the kid flooded his mind. What the plans they had for her were, what Moff Gideon was up to, and the fact that Din has probably gotten tricked with the age. 

Din looked into his rear view mirror, and concern filled his mind as he noticed the same car had been following him since he basically started driving. Granted, they had been on the highway for most of the way, but a sickening feeling had filled his stomach since he noticed them. They had flashed their high-beams at him a few times, despite the sun being out now. Din saw no indication of a state or city-owned vehicle, so he didn’t pull over for them. He kept driving, keeping a close eye on his rearview mirror.   
Then, much to Din’s horror, he saw the car behind him drift into the lane next to him, picking up speed to reach his car. His breath picked up as he attempted to speed up, but to no avail due to the cars in front of him going the proper speed limit. Din took a quick glance to his window, seeing a car full of people, one of them holding up a tracking beacon. Just like the one he had when he was searching for the kid.   
“Oh no,” Din mumbled, seeing the woman in the passenger’s seat giving Din a devious smile as she held up a gun, pointing it towards Din through her window. Din panicked, switching between looking at the road and her. He heard the baby in the backseat beginning to wake up, seeming disturbed by the slight swerving the car kept doing. Din quickly swerved onto the next exit that he narrowly missed, hearing the gunshot hit his car but she luckily missed the window. He let out a breath of relief, but he spoke too soon as he saw the car appear again, followed by the honking of horns by other cars. “Fuck!” Din said. He looked in the rearview mirror again, this time at the kid, who looked to be on the verge of a total meltdown. The car was still following him, and he heard distant sirens.   
Din pressed on the gas pedal harder, swerving around all the cars in the lane. He felt grateful for his time with the police, as he had become an expert at weaving his way through New York City traffic. He was glad to see the car had backed off a bit, not being able to weave through traffic like Din could. He kept driving, knowing he was going way too fast to be safe, but he had his certification forms to show the police if he needed to. Then again, they may be suspicious of the child. No one had ever heard of or seen a child being brought in for bounty. It was unheard of. 

Din kept his speed up for a little while, turning on different roads in case the car was catching up to them. It wasn’t until about twenty minutes later that Din deemed it safe to get back on the highway. The sirens had stopped, which meant that they either gave up their search, or the car had been pulled over. Though, if they had a tracking fob that meant they were also bounty hunters. Din had a feeling they were still lurking out there, looking for him.   
Din turned around quickly to glance at the kid. She seemed alert; not entirely sure what was happening but didn’t seem scared either.   
“You okay, kid?” He asked, looking towards the road again, though he wasn’t sure why he asked since she wouldn’t be able to answer.   
“Alright, kid, here we are,” Din sighed, parking his car. They had finally arrived at Moff Gideon’s building. It had been a long few hours. They could have arrived earlier but keep in mind that Din had a baby with him, which meant he had to stop more times than he usually did in order to feed and change her, and take extra time to clean up baby vomit once. “You’re out of my hair now,” He said, getting out of the car and getting his weapons ready just to be safe. He grabbed the baby, wrapping her up in the blankets. She cooed, looking around at her surroundings with those wondrous eyes again.   
Din approached the building, holding up his bounty hunter card in order to enter the building. He was met with guards again. They looked at him, and then down at the kid. One of them held his arms out.   
“I’ll take the kid from here, sir,” he said. Din hesitated, but didn’t pull back when the man took the girl into his arms. He wasn’t rough with her, but didn’t seem to care much about her fragileness or the fact that she was a baby. The kid whined as she was placed in the stranger’s arms, looking at Din with fear and caution.   
“Easy with that,” Din said as they walked down the hall, not liking how rough the man was being with the kid.   
“You take it easy!” The man snapped back. 

They entered the room where Din had been in just a couple days ago to retrieve the tracking fob. Din paused when he saw the number of guards and soldiers in the room. There were twice as many as there was before. His hand hovered over his gun in its sling.   
“Moff Gideon?” The soldier said, and the man in question turned around from his place in the back of the room.   
“Yes, yes!” He said when he saw the baby, walking over to the guard and taking the baby from him. She whined again, this time looking back at Din with tears in her eyes that were threatening to fall. He stayed silent, watching the scene with his hand still hovered over the blaster. 

Another person walked in then, who looked like a doctor.   
“Ah, Doctor Rousin. Look who we have.” Gideon said with evil lacing his voice, walking over to the doctor.   
“Amazing,” Rousin whispered, crouching slightly to look at the kid. He pulled out a device and clicked it, a red light coming on. He waved it over the kid’s face, who whimpered and turned her head away. “Perfectly healthy,” he smiled, standing up and taking the baby into his arms. He then turned around and walked out of the room, two soldiers following behind him. Din’s whole body tensed when he heard the sounds of the baby crying. 

“You have no idea how much this asset means to me, Djarin,” Gideon said, walking towards Din. The words tumbled out of his mouth before he could even think of what he was saying.   
“What are your plans for it?” He asked. Gideon looked up at him, surprised.   
“Odd question.” He said. “Isn’t it a rule in your Guild to not ask questions?” He asked rhetorically. The soldiers around him slowly raised their guns and Din was quick to raise his, a knife in his other hand. Gideon laughed beside him. “Please, lower your gun,” he chuckled. “If you do, I can give you your reward and you can leave with no shots being fired.”   
“Have them lower theirs first,” Din replied, looking between the soldiers with alert eyes.   
“Fine,” Gideon sighed. The soldiers began to lower their guns, and Din slowly followed. He turned and walked towards the table, grabbing the briefcase off of it. He gave the door which the baby had gone through one last look. “Now, get out,” he heard Moff Gideon say. 

**********

The older woman, whom Din had learned the name of after years of coming to her shop, which was Talmia, had a surprised face as Din dropped the package of beskar on the table. It was rare that someone walked in with so much beskar at once. Talmia examined a few pieces carefully, before deeming them legitimate.   
“Well, we can use some pieces to build you a new set of armor; chest, arms, legs. Then, you can use the rest to trade in for money, which will be quite a bit. Up to you though.” she explained.   
“That would be great,” Din replied. The woman nodded before taking the armor and disappearing to the back to make his new vest and other pieces of armor. She worked quickly, and within the hour it was finished. Din took off his old pieces and exchanged them for the new. He looked at himself in the mirror, grateful for the new protection he had. “Thank you,” he said, turning to the woman. She held out a bag with a ‘your welcome’ and Din took the bag of cash before leaving. He had to keep working, even though after the whirlwind of experiences over the past few days made him want to sleep in his little apartment. 

“Djarin!” Greef Karga greeted when Din entered the Guild hub. The other hunters looked up and stared at his new armor and bag of what they assumed was money as he walked to Karga’s table. “Oo, look at you! Seems like that reward did you well,” he smiled as Din sat down across from him.   
“Yeah, I guess. Can I have another job?” Din asked, not liking the eyes on him. Karga looked at him wide-eyed.   
“Are you sure? I know we had this conversation just a few days ago but Din, you’re working too hard. Take a break!” Din stared at him in silence for a few seconds, and Karga sighed.   
“Fine. I’ll let you pick. You’ve earned it; best in the galaxy,” he smiled. Din picked one at random; a Mon Calamari. He fiddled with the device for a few seconds before looking back up at Karga.   
“Do you have any idea about what they’re going to do with it?”   
“With what?” Din sighed.   
“The kid,”   
“How should I know? You know the rules, don’t ask questions.” Karga responded, sounding angry. Din sighed, knowing that it would do nothing if he tried to explain the situation. Besides, he didn’t want to keep prying at it otherwise Karga and other Guild members would be up his ass about why he was asking questions. Din hated drawing unwanted attention to himself. Though, that’s hard to avoid when you’re a bounty hunter in New York City. He left, and luckily the other members were no longer paying attention to him, so he could slip out without being bombarded with questions. 

An unsettling feeling rested in Din’s stomach as he walked to his car. He felt a sense of guilt, which didn’t usually come over him after returning a bounty. It wasn’t his business to know, however it was Moff Gideon, and she was a child. If Din knew one thing about Gideon, it was that he could be ruthless. It came in handy during his time with the police. He hardly ever backed down on cases or tracked down someone, even if everyone else in their group wanted to give up. Moff Gideon would find them, and he would interrogate them to tears, even the most brooding ang toughest people Din came in contact with. Yes, he was good. But did he know his limits? Gideon also purposely led a group of officers into one of his traps, and he killed them all. He’d been corrupted in the shadows. Din didn’t know why he did the things he did because Gideon got fired from the department before Din could confront him. He couldn’t do that with a child; it would kill her. Din could not let that happen.   
He walked to his car, and reloaded on some weapons and ammunition. This child was innocent, and Din couldn’t let the corrupted Gideon ruin that. Din had been subjected to things during his childhood that made him have to grow up a lot quicker than kids his age. These things also left him with traumatizing memories he wished he could forget. If he could keep a child away from the same fate Din faced, it would be worth more than any amount of beskar. 

He drove once again to the building where Gideon and his cronies were hiding out. It for some reason was weird not hearing or seeing the child in the back, despite her only being with Din for about a day. He walked up to entrance, and when the stupid machine next to the door flung out to scan a card or code, Din grabbed it and tore it in two before walking to the side of the building. He heard guards coming out, probably to check out the building. He planted some hand grenades on the side of the building, and hid behind a few trash bins as he heard the explosions. He saw some guards coming out, and he quickly pointed his gun over the cans and shot at them, knocking them down with only one shot each. Slowly checking around, he got up and entered the building through the part that he blew up. Alarms were blaring, but still no sign of Gideon. He kept walking through the halls.   
“Hey! Drop your weapon!” He turned around, and was met with gunshots. Luckily his vest dodged them barely. He shot back, hitting one with a bullet and using his grappling hook to grip onto the other one. Din yanked him down, and shot him too. He kept running down the hall until he entered Gideon’s main room. Ah, so that was where most of the soldiers were. He saw Gideon once again at the back of the room.   
“Where is she,” Din demanded to know, holding his gun up. Moff Gideon turned around, but didn’t say anything. The Din felt arms grab him from the back. He struggled to get them to release him, but to no avail. He got punched in the face, but then Din elbowed whoever he was from behind. They released him, and then Din noticed the giant lights hanging from the ceiling, he shot at them, and about six of them came down and knocked out many soldiers. 

Din then looked over at Moff Gideon, who had a hand grenade.   
“Come along, soldiers! This building along with Din Djarin will be blown to pieces.” Gideon announced. Din then felt a sharp pain entering his foot. He then noticed that one of the soldiers on the ground that wasn’t quite dead had stuck a knife through part of Din’s foot into the ground and was holding it there. He had quite a strong grip, because Din couldn’t get away. Gideon planted the hand grenade on the wall before leaving the building, his soldiers in tow.   
“No, no! Damn it!” He shouted, pulling out his gun and shooting the soldier again. The grip on the knife loosened. Din pulled out the knife, ignoring the searing pain for now. He stumbled out the building just as it exploded into flames. Din covered his head as he kept running. He saw Gideon getting into a car, along with many soldiers, some of them getting into other cars.   
“No, no! Kid, where are you?” Din mumbled, scanning the area quickly. There! He saw the doctor scrambling to a car that a soldier was opening the door of. He had a suitcase that he assumed had medical supplies, along with the kid in his arms. She looked limp; unmoving and not crying. Din ran towards them, shooting at the soldier. He saw Gideon’s and the soldiers’ cars driving away, but he didn’t care at the moment. He dove into the doctor, grabbing his suitcase and flinging it away from him. The doctor yelled as he hit the ground. Din grabbed the baby from him and stood up, keeping a foot pressed firmly on the doctor’s stomach.   
“What did you do to her?!” Din demanded again. The doctor was babbling through his tears now. Din cocked his gun, pointing it at him. “What. Did. You. Do.”   
“Please, please!” The doctor pleaded. “If it weren’t for me she’d already be dead! Please!” He cried. Din looked at the baby. She was pale, looking up at Din through squinted eyes. He sighed, stepping off of the doctor and instead running towards his car. He didn’t care, he got in the driver’s seat and drove with the kid in his arms. He needed to get to Moff Gideon, he knew. But, Din had no idea what direction they went in, and he was injured. The baby did not look much better. 

He drove back towards the city, to his apartment. However, there was already a group of people waiting for him there. Greef Karga, along with many other bounty hunters had him surrounded.   
“Shoot,” he whispered as the baby whimpered against him.   
“Din Djarin. You have gone against the Bounty Hunter’s Guild Code. Now, if you cooperate and give me the child we can discuss terms. Din rolled down his window, sticking his head out.   
“No. The kid’s coming with me,” He said firmly. Karga sighed, and he saw guns begin to point at him.   
“Din, please. If you just listen we can all walk out of this alive,” Instead of doing that though, Din swerved away from the scene, and drove in the opposite direction, driving in the direction of Moff’s now burning building. 

Was that the wisest choice? No. Din would probably have to get a new car now so people would stop following him. He had now technically gone rogue from the Guild, and Moff Gideon and his soldiers were after him. However, looking down at the child in his arms, Din somehow knew he had made the right choice. The kid was alive. Saved from a certain life or even premature death. Din wouldn’t have been able to live with those consequences. Din lived day-by-day. Tomorrow would have its own issues, and boy were there a lot of them. But for right now, he needed to get him and the child safe at least for one day. He pulled out his phone, and called the first person he thought of that he was sure would be able to help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! This one took awhile because I ended up getting a writing's block halfway through writing it, and I wrote that little one-shot thing in between. But, I hope the wait was worth it! Let me know what you thought of it. Who do you think Din called?


	5. A Friend to Help

Din sighed as he pulled into Cara’s driveway. The sun was just starting to set.  
“Alright, kid. Hopefully this works out,” Din said, getting out of the car, groaning in pain when a searing pulse of pain shot from his foot all the way to his thigh, his whole leg almost giving way. He hoped Cara had some medical supplies to help him with his foot, and he hoped it was nothing too serious. He got the kid out of the car as well as the small bag with the things he bought for her as well as some personal hygiene and clothes he had with him. He practically limped to her door, clenching his jaw and trying not to groan out in pain with each step he took. The kid looked up at him in his arms, letting out a few quizzical babbles and seeming to know that Din was injured.  
He knocked on the door once he got there, hoping he didn’t look too awful. He should've checked his face in the rearview mirror when he was still in the car because he was pretty sure he had dried blood on his face. But, his face was already a bit beat up. Having a series of violent jobs, Din’s face had acquired a few scars and even a broken nose that once set back in place was still a bit noticeably crooked if you looked at him long enough. The rest of his body didn’t look much better either; littered with scars and bruises. He knew the stories of almost every one of them; even the ones that were healed or minor enough to the point where you really had to look to be able to see them. He wasn’t proud of all of them, but he was just like everyone else in the world: trying to maintain a job to keep himself afloat. 

“Oh, Din. What did you do. . .” Cara Dune sighed once she’d opened the door, looking at her friend and the child in his arms. The kid looked around in awe. Smiling at Cara as she put a few fingers in her mouth to suck on, her other hand smacking at Din’s wrist as she babbled quietly.  
“It’s-it’s a long story. But, things aren’t looking good right now. I’ll explain everything; can we just spend the night here or something?” Din asked, sounding stressed.  
“Yeah, of course!” Cara said, stepping to the side so Din could walk in. She gasped when she saw the state of his foot. Even though the wound was mostly covered by the shoe except for the rip due to the knife, she could see a blood stain. She also noticed the slight limp he had when he walked now. “Holy crap! What the hell happened to your foot?” 

Din sighed, turning around once they were all inside. The baby was squirming and whining, wanting to be put down to explore after being in the car mostly for the last couple of days. He set her down on the floor. She was still only wearing a diaper and was wrapped in blankets. Din also set down a small backpack which Cara was guessing held the small amount of belongings Din kept in his car at all times.  
“Also a long story. You got a first-aid kit?” He asked, sitting down in a chair to avoid the pain. Cara nodded.  
“Be right back,” she muttered, walking away. Din carefully took his boot off, biting down on his lip as his boot scraped against the wound, most likely getting dirt in it. He then took his sock off, which caused an equal amount of pain. The kid looked up at Din, not having gone very far from where he initially set her down. She crawled over, concern flooding her eyes. She stopped once she reached Din’s foot, looking up at him with a whimper. She leaned over to get closer to the wound.  
“No!” Din exclaimed, reaching over quickly to push her little hand away, sounding harsher than he intended. He sighed when he saw tears forming in the little one’s eyes, lip quivering. He set her on his lap as the little cries started.  
“Look, kid, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Don’t touch that though, okay? It could be infected.” He told her, not expecting her to understand but somehow feeling the need to explain his little outburst. She seemed to calm down a bit as Din spoke, but continued to stare at his foot with tears in her eyes. 

Cara returned with a first aid kit and a little bottle Din assumed was ibuprofen.  
“Alright,” she sighed, kneeling in front of the man’s exposed foot. “I’m not sure what I have in here, but if worst comes to worst there’s a clinic not too far from here. Maybe thirty minutes?” Din looked up at her.  
“No, I can’t go anywhere like that. People are onto me. I’m probably on t.v as we speak. I need to lay low with the kid.” He explained as Cara wet a washcloth in the sink.  
“That bad, huh?” She questioned, kneeling in front of him again to gently start cleaning the blood away from the wound. Din hissed out in pain. “Sorry,” she frowned. 

Carasynthia Dune. Discharged from the army six years ago. Shortly after she became a marshal. She and Din had met when he was still a police officer, and they were both involved in a criminal investigation. Din had left the department shortly after, and through pure luck at a cafe had they met again. Cara lived a few hours from the Big Apple, so they didn’t see each other often. However, both of their doors were open for one another at all times. 

Din’s foot was soon being wrapped up in a bandage, on the road to healing. He downed about four ibuprofens with some water before sighing in relief, feeling much better than before. His foot was still throbbing, but he was no longer worried it would be infected, and hopefully the ibuprofen would kick in soon. He, Cara, and the kid had migrated to the living room. The kid had taken great interest in Cara’s cat that Din thought was the devil in disguise, seeing as he had been bitten and scratched by the cat numerous times. He had been slightly worried about the kid getting close to the cat, but the cat had simply nuzzled his face against the baby’s, purring and sniffing her all over. The kid was delighted, giggling and patting the cat’s back messily. 

Cara sat on the couch with a glass of water for herself and a sippy cup for the girl. She had young nieces that came over often, so she had a few baby/toddler-like things laying around.  
“Do you know how old it is?” Cara asked, setting the cups down and smiling at the cat and baby. Din was drawn out from his zoned-out state, not seeming to notice Cara had entered due to the slight jolt he did when she spoke.  
“She, and I’m not sure, maybe six months?” Din replied, taking a long drink of water.  
“Well, I brought her this. It’s my niece’s, but she should be alright to drink from it.” Cara explained, setting the sippy cup on the table. 

The two simply sat there for a moment, silence surrounding them besides the occasional babble or giggle from the baby. Din knew Cara was waiting to hear everything, but was grateful she wasn't pushing him to talk. Even he needed a moment to organize his thoughts. This was his first time really sitting down since he had rescued the kid. Everything had gone by in a blur. 

“She was my latest bounty. Moff Gideon wants her,’’ Din started, and he heard Cara gasp.  
“Moff Gideon? Wasn’t he part of, like, a huge scandal in the police department?”  
“Yeah, he’s the reason why I left pretty much,”  
“I wonder what he wants with a baby of all things.” Cara wondered aloud. Din looked over at the kid, crawling around after the now unimpressed-looking cat.  
“I don’t know. They said she was fifty-years-old. I was lied to.” Din said, deciding to leave out the levitating phone in the motel room story. He couldn’t explain it, and if he attempted to explain it to Cara she’d think he was insane.  
“Wow, must be a pretty secret and probably not a good situation. It’s a good thing you got her out of there.” Din sighed, looking down at his water glass, feeling ashamed

“Well, not initially. I did give her back. The reward was so much beskar. I was able to get a new vest and armor and trade the rest in some for money. But then I just couldn’t take it; I went back and got her. Moff Gideon and all his guards got away.” Din looked at Cara, who looked to be taking it all in.  
“That explains the foot?” She asked.  
“Yep, one of the guards shoved a knife in it when I was fighting them.” He replied. “You probably think I’m an awful person: giving a baby to someone who probably wants her for evil purposes in exchange for money. I think they were doing experiments on her: there was a doctor there too.” Cara smiled sadly at the baby, probably taking in the few bruises that were on her soft and delicate baby skin.  
“The important thing is that she’s with you now. We can’t change the past, but you’ve fixed it. Are you guys safe? Probably not. But you did the right thing,” She said, smiling at Din, who smiled back. 

He was about to say something else, when a particularly loud shriek came from the baby and looked over. She had found one of the cat’s bright pink mouth toys and like most things that reached a baby’s hand, it was going straight for her mouth. Din was on his feet in an instant.  
“No, that’s not for you.” He said, taking the mouse out of the kid’s hand and throwing it towards the kitchen, the cat bolting after it. The baby whined for a moment, and then reached up to Din. He settled her on his lap on the couch, and grabbed the red sippy cup from the table. He looked at it confusedly.  
“Um. . .” he mumbled, not exactly sure how to give it to the baby. He wondered if she could hold it on her own. Then there was the concern that she would choke if he or she didn’t hold it right. Cara seemed to catch on to the problem though, and leaned forward to adjust Din’s arms and the baby.  
“Here,” she mumbled, rearranging their position. “There, now just guide the cup to her mouth,” she told him. He did as told, and soon the baby was guzzling the water. Din’s cheeks felt hot as he sat awkwardly. Having kids had never been a huge calling or want in his life, especially considering his job. His thoughts were more, if it happens, it happens. But, he wouldn’t be upset if he ended up never having kids. He wasn’t sure about Cara; it had never been a topic they talked about. However, he knew they were close in age and he was in his late thirties, which meant that Cara was getting to be a bit old for child-bearing. Either way, he couldn’t shake the feeling of embarrassment as his usual stoic, bounty hunter, tough persona was crashing down thanks to a baby. Now he just looked like a dad who was alone with the baby for the first time and had no clue what he was doing. 

“What are you going to do now?’ Cara asked after a minute or two of simply watching the kid.  
“I need to lay low for a bit in hopes things will calm down. I also need to get a profile on Moff Gideon. Figure out what he’s been up to since I left NYPD. That man needs to be in jail.” Din sighed. The kid was done with the water, turning away from the drink. Din set the cup on the table and sat the baby higher up on his lap. She looked sleepy again, sitting quietly in Din’s lap as she picked at the hole in Din’s jeans. 

“Well, lucky for you I’m a Marshal” Cara smiled. “I’m sure I can get you a file on Gideon tomorrow if you can stick around. I’m also planning on heading to a really small town in a couple of days. There have been reports of a group of bandits raiding Sorgan. I checked the population: only about a-thousand people. It’s in Maine though, which means we’ll have to cross state lines.” Cara thought out loud.  
“Maine, huh? Bit far for you, isn’t it?” Din asked.  
“Well, I get around a lot. If there’s a case I can get on in a matter of days, I take it. Plus, I’m a Marshal which means I have tabs on a lot of people. If i can talk to some witnesses, maybe we can get a lead.” She shrugs. 

“Do you think there will be any problems with driving through other states?”  
“There shouldn’t be. But, if you want to be safe I can print the kid a birth certificate. As for you, if you put a cap on and shave you shouldn’t be too recognizable. I wouldn’t worry though since we’re driving,” Cara explained. 

Din nodded. “In my experience, you can never be too careful. Plus, the birth certificate might come in handy in case I need to get on a plane quickly,” Din thought aloud. He looked down at the kid, who was squirming to get down again. He put her down, and she crawled over the cat again who was laying all stretched out in front of the heater. 

“So you’re planning on keeping the kid with you?” Cara wondered.  
“I guess so. This whole situation is sketchy, I wouldn’t feel right putting the kid with anyone else unless I felt like the kid would be safer somewhere different. Hopefully Gideon will be put in prison soon, and from there I can decide what to do with the kid. Maybe put her in CPS? Or a foster system? Don’t think spending her life with a bounty hunter is the best idea,” Din said with a chuckle. Again, he decided to leave out the levitating phone story. He was thinking that was why Gideon wanted the kid, for whatever the kid had these powers for. In the hands of the wrong people, those powers could become enemy number one, which just made him sadder knowing they were powers of a child. 

“Well, you’re a smart man, Din. I’m sure you’ll make the best decision.” Cara smiled. 

“So, Sorgan in a couple of days?”  
“Sorgan in a couple of days,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! If there's anything you'd like to see happen in this book let me know. Also, can't wait for the finale of The Mandalorian. It's going to be EPIC!


	6. The Road Trip

“Kid, just sit sti- no, stop it,” Din said frustratedly, looking down at his soaked shirt. Cara had kindly offered some of the dinner she was about to sit down to when Din and the kid had arrived. He and Cara gladly dove into the spaghetti, meatballs, and garlic. Cara luckily had a banana which Din mashed up for the kid. He alternated between eating his own meal and feeding the kid. Cara also offered the kid some Cheerios, seeing as they both were a bit unsure about her age. However, every time a Cheerio went into her mouth it came back out seconds later, still whole and covered in drool. Anyway, the banana had ended up getting all over the baby and even on Din too seeing as she was sitting on his lap during the meal. A wet cloth couldn’t quite get all of it and the baby was very opposed to having her face being wiped with it, so now she was sitting in the tub. 

The kid happily splashed around in the tub, fascinated by the bubble bath Din had added in. She had needed a bath anyway. The napkins and water from the days prior only did so much to clean the little one up of the smears of dirt on her skin and even her matted hair. Unfortunately, Cara had no baby shampoo, so Din had carefully massaged the shampoo into her hair and was now trying to wash it out. It was proving to be difficult though, as the little one was having a blast with the water, hitting her hands against it and getting Din wet too. The man sighed, once again pressing one hand against her forehead to both tip her head back and keep any shampoo out of her eyes. He used the other to take a small cup of water and pour it over her curly locks. Luckily, the kid stayed still long enough this time for the water to actually hit her head. He repeated the action a couple more times before deeming her hair shampoo-free. 

“You made that way more difficult than it had to be, ya know,” Din sighed, sitting back against the bathroom counter. The kid simply let out a string of babbles, proudly holding up a washcloth Din had used minutes prior to gently clean her body with some soap. That part had been much easier than the shampoo, despite some complaints from the child when Din accidentally scrubbed too hard on a bruise. He had tried to be as gentle as he could, but it must have still hurt her. 

Din sometimes wondered if he was being too gentle with the kid. He knew she wasn’t a little glass doll that could break so easily, but everything about her was small. She was smaller and more delicate than anything Din had encountered. In his work life he tended to handle things quite roughly, and with this kid he was worried that his rough hands and movements he was so used to doing would hurt her. 

Earlier, when he had been lowering her into the tub, he did so with ease and at a slow pace. And, whenever he changed her diaper, every movement he did was extremely gentle and cautious. He was worried that even by lifting her legs slightly he would break her. And, with the few bruises littering her body, it broke Din’s heart and just made him want to be even more gentle. 

Din continued to watch the kid play until he heard a car pull into the driveway. He got up to make sure it was Cara, even though the pain in his foot begged him to do otherwise. When they had finished dinner earlier, Din had offered to clean up. While he cleaned, he and Cara came up with a list of the things they might need for their roadtrip to Sorgan that was just a couple days away, and it was mainly things for the baby. Baby food, clothes, bottles, and a carseat were a few things on the list. 

The small stop at the gas station Din had made earlier was clearly not to sustain the kid for a long period of time, as he thought she would be with Moff Gideon by now. However, things changed and now she was back with Din for the foreseeable future most likely. With Moff Gideon and other bounty hunters trying to track them down, Din now had no clue how long the kid would be with him. That being said, the small package of diapers and wipes would certainly not be good enough. Din had offered to go and leave Cara with the kid, but then he was reminded of the state of his foot, so Cara went instead. 

The list they had made only had things the kid absolutely needed. Din didn’t know if everything on that list was a necessity, but he trusted Cara’s judgement more than his seeing as she had actually had kids in her care before. Besides, Din could afford to splurge a bit. His reputation was good (well, it used to be), and his price was high. His jobs paid him well. He certainly wasn’t rich, but he didn’t have to live paycheck to paycheck. 

Din heard the front door open and the sound of bags shuffling and car keys hitting the plastic bowl Cara had for keys as she would constantly lose them. He then heard her climbing the stairs and then a knock at the bathroom door. He opened it and Cara held out a plastic bag for him.   
“Here, get her dressed and all that. I’ll unload the rest of it,” Din thanked her before closing the door again. The bathroom was warm. Cara told him to amp up the heat a little in the bathroom for the kid and he was now sweating. The slight cool breeze that hit him when Cara opened the door was heavenly, and he couldn’t wait to leave the hot room. 

Din dug through the plastic bag. He pulled out a diaper, cream and baby powder, a footed one-piece that was blue with little sea creatures all over it, and a pacifier. The outfit was cute, Din had to admit. He grabbed the towel off the counter behind him. He grabbed the baby out of the tub and wrapped her up in the towel. She whined a bit, reaching out for the tub as it drained. Din patted her down with the towel as best he could. He couldn’t help but let out a chuckle along with the baby when he dried her hair. Her hair was poofy and going in all different directions. 

He tipped the kid onto her back and first noticed the bottle of lotion in the bag. He shrugged, but attempted to rub a thin layer of it all over the squirmy baby’s body. Then, he got the diaper on, which Din had found he was getting better at every time he did it, even with the added cream and powder application. The onesie was a bit more difficult, as it had so many tiny buttons that Din kept missing the snaps for so they were uneven. He knew they made these pajamas with zippers; he would have much preferred those. He finally figured it out though, much to Din’s relief as the kid seemed to be getting impatient. He sat her up and held up the pacifier to her mouth, which she gladly took. He found a comb on top of the counter and gently ran it through her hair to smooth it out. It was starting to curl again as it dried, and it looked much better than it did before. 

Din took the wet towel that was on the floor near the tub and hung it over the shower curtain rod to dry, and then took a couple extra towels and swiped them across the floor with his foot to try to dry some of the water. As he exited the bathroom with the bag, he looked at the kid in his arms, who was looking at him with her brown, wide eyes again.   
“Dang it, kid, you’re pretty cute,” Din admitted with a shrug, tossing the bag in his room. He found Cara there too, who seemed to be setting up a portable crib.   
“Hi!” She greeted, looking up from her work. “I thought this crib would work best. It folds up pretty quickly just by removing a couple pieces. It’s not giant either, or heavy.” Cara said.   
“Thank you,” Din nodded. “I’m. . .not sure I would have been able to figure all of this out without you,” he said honestly. Like he said before, he wasn’t a baby expert.   
“No problem,” she smiled.

“Ah, ah!” the baby babbled out in that moment, slapping Din’s chest with her hand. Her pacifier fell out of her mouth, but Din caught it before it hit the floor. He stared at her, watching as she made a fist and rubbed her eyes a bit. “Ah!” She said again, this time opening her mouth and leaning into his chest, sucking on the fabric of his damp shirt.   
“Ew, kid. No, stop,” he said, gently holding her back upright. The kid let out a noise of complaint.   
“Ah!” And then Din began to panic again when he saw her eyes begin to glisten and lip wobble.   
“What is it? I don’t- do you want this?” He asked, holding up the pacifier to her mouth like he did before. The gesture was ignored this time, and crying started instead. 

Cara walked over to them. Din turned around, seeing that the crib was finished.   
“I think she might be tired,” The man said, saying it more as a question than a statement. The baby had once again started sucking on Din’s shirt again, cries muffled by the cloth.   
“Maybe, but sit tight for a second. Lemme go grab something,” she said before dashing out of the room. Din, trying to keep cool, started bouncing the baby. He so badly wanted to pull her away from sucking on his shirt, but decided against since she was already crying. He didn’t want to make things worse. 

Cara returned a minute later, a bottle of milk in her hand this time. Without a word, she helped Din adjust the baby in his arms, the cries getting louder when the kid was pulled away from his chest. Once the bottle reached the baby’s lips, she started gulping down the milk. Silence. 

Din sighed in relief, his anxiety leaving his shoulders slightly as he watched the kid drink the milk, eyes heavy.   
“How the hell did you know to do that?” Din asked incredulously. If he had been on his own in that situation the kid would still be crying, Din crying right along with her probably.  
“Well, she was sucking on your chest basically, and that’s how kids breastfeed so I figured she wanted milk,” she shrugged. Din nodded, then paused.   
“That-that must mean she was with her mom long enough to breastfeed since she knows how to do it. Right?” He asked.   
“Yeah, probably! Hard to say how long she was alone when you found her though. Most babies pick up how to breastfeed pretty quickly; within one or two days of birth actually. But, we can only hope for the best, right!” She explained.   
“How do you know so much about kids?” Din asked, very grateful for the information.   
“Like I said, I’m no expert. But, I have three sisters who all have at least one kid, so I know a thing or two.” She laughed. 

A couple days later, everyone had to wake up bright and early. Din was once again exhausted, as the kid had woken him up again. Thankfully, it only happened once and she calmed down pretty quickly. Din guessed she had been scared to be in the crib alone since the days prior she and Din slept in the same bed. 

Din had gotten the kid ready, and he even was able to pump out a five-minute shower before he started to hear the increasingly familiar whimpers and whines from the room next to his. Din finished in record time, and picked up the kid and fed her the bottle Cara had kindly made for him, setting it on the night table before Din went to shower. He then laid out all of their things on the bed and he was trying to figure out the best way to pack everything. They were leaving with significantly more things than what they had come with, including Cara’s things. However, Cara’s car was big so he wasn’t too worried. The baby sat by his feet and played with some blocks Cara had bought at Walmart. She was babbling under her breath, not talking to anyone in particular. 

As Din was trying to stuff a crap-ton of baby clothes into a bag, he suddenly felt a strange sensation on his injured foot, which was taking its sweet time healing.   
“The fuck. . .” he mumbled under his breath, looking down. The feeling was warm, his foot having a similar feeling as when his foot would fall asleep. However, this was a bit different. Din couldn’t completely put his finger on it. Was the bandage too tight? Was his foot bleeding again? The baby was still sitting in her spot, though she now had a hand on Din’s foot and had her head tilted back with closed eyes. Din could only stare at her, hands still on his backpack but not moving. Was she doing this? A few seconds later, the baby seemed to be finished. She moved her hand away from Din’s foot and rubbed her eyes instead, suddenly appearing to be very tired despite just waking up.

Slowly, Din sat down on the floor, still staring at the kid. He took off his sock on his injured foot and unwrapped the bandage from it. When he had wrapped his foot just minutes ago after his shower, his foot still had a wound on it. The hole was still visible, but it had mostly been scabbed over, and some bruising had started, revealing a disgusting purple and brown color around the wound. Now, as Din stared at his foot in both fear and amazement, the wound was gone. Completely. There was no sign that a nasty injury had been there seconds before. 

Din ran his hand over his foot. No pain, no bumps. Just skin. He looked back up to the kid.   
“How?” He whispered. Was this part of her ‘powers’? Was the levitating just part of it or something? The kid’s head suddenly tipped forward, signalling she had fallen asleep. A block was still softly clutched in her hand. Din gently picked her up before her whole body fell forward and woke her up. He placed her on the bed. Her crib had already been packed, and Cara had been right; it was easy to set up and put away. Din took one last look at her to make sure she didn’t seem injured by what just happened before taking a load of things down to his friend’s car. 

“Hey! Woah, are you okay?” Cara asked him when she saw him. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” she laughed. Din simply nodded before walking to the car. Cara didn’t need to know this. Heck, Din couldn’t even explain it if he tried. 

The pair finished packing the car in ten minutes. Din checked his own car that had been parked in Cara’s garage in order to hopefully ward off Moff Gideon or other hunters one more time. He checked to make sure he had all of his weapons, money, and anything else that he needed or was valuable before locking it. 

He then grabbed his final item: the kid. She didn’t even stir as Din picked her up as gently as he could. He supposed he should feel grateful she was asleep, seeing as she woke up during the night and that they had a long drive ahead of them. But, a small part of him was worried. He tried to calm himself down though. She didn’t appear to be injured and her breathing was completely normal. He buckled her into the car seat, which had taken Din an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to install in the night before. Then, he hopped into the passenger’s seat. Cara had been kind enough to drive the first part of the journey so Din could sleep. 

And they were off. Sorgan, Maine. 

“I’m surprised she fell back asleep so quickly.” Cara noted, referring to the baby. Din nodded as he took his pillow from the back to help him sleep better.   
“Yeah. Guess she was tired,” Din said. He was lying, but a little white lie never hurt nobody. 

Din woke up with a jolt. Then, he squinted. The sun was now out, as opposed to when they first started driving at five and it was still mostly dark out. He looked over and saw Cara taking two drinks and a bag from a Dunkin’ Donuts employee. They were probably talking and Din had woken up. He was a pretty light sleeper, which was a blessing when you’re a police officer or a bounty hunter. But, when you’re just trying to catch up on some sleep after being chased by bounty hunters a baby has woken you up during the night, it was a curse. 

“Oh, hey,” Cara smiled as she pulled out of the parking lot. “I got you a black coffee. I couldn’t remember if you liked sugar or cream, so I got you two of each. I also got you a bagel with cream cheese and a banana for the kid. She’ll be hungry if she ever wakes up.” Cara told him, handing him the black coffee and bag. She had her own bagel in her hands. Din looked behind him. The kid still slept. 

“Thanks,” Din mumbled, running a hand through his hair and over his face. He took the coffee, adding in one cream and one sugar, and then began to munch on the bagel. “She hasn’t woken up once?” He asked after a couple minutes. Cara nodded.   
“Not a peep.”   
“How long was I asleep?” Din then asked, trying to gauge whether he should start to worry about the kid.   
“About two hours probably. I had a whole water bottle while you were asleep so I’m probably gonna need to piss soon. I was thinking we could switch at the next pit stop,” Cara notified him. Din nodded. Two hours wasn’t that long for the kid to sleep. He knew babies slept a lot. Maybe doing whatever sort of healing thing she did to his foot had tired her out.   
“How’s your foot doing?” She asked, taking a sip of coffee. Din looked out of his window as he took a sip of his coffee as well. He rubbed his eyes, trying to regain some consciousness and familiarity to where he was. Despite being a light sleeper, naps during the day, especially when they were longer than thirty minutes left him disoriented. 

He guessed they were in northeast New York by now, or at least close. He had never been too far up north in New York before. The spring trees were beautiful, the leaves starting to grow and be green. They were on the highway, but he could see the long trails of small forests or bundles of trees along the road.   
“It’s great. Much better than when I got here,” he answered simply, taking another long drink of coffee.   
“Seems like it. You were carrying the bags to the car pretty easily. You’re not even limping anymore,” she noted.   
“Quick healer, I guess,” Din shrugged, wanting to move on from the subject. “Where are we? Northeast New York?”   
“Yeah, just about.   
“Need to switch yet? I’m fine to take over if you want a break,” Din offered. Cara shook her head.   
“I’m fine for a while longer,” Din nodded.

“Oh!” Cara exclaimed. “I got the file on Moff Gideon. Sorry, I thought they would be ready yesterday but it took a bit longer than expected. I also printed a fake birth certificate for the kid. They’re in the glove box.” Cara said. Din opened it and took out the small pile of papers. On top was the birth certificate. 

Wren Djarin

Date of birth: 8:17 P.M, October 15, 2019

Father: Din Djarin (adopted)

Mother: Unknown

New York City Hospital, 23 Oak Street, New York

There were many other things written on the paper, but those were the most important things written. Din was impressed at how official it looked.   
“Looks legit,” he nodded. Wren Djarin. Djarin. Father: Din Djarin. It felt foreign to him, referring to himself as the kid’s father. It wasn’t an official title as it was fake. However, it was still strange to see it written on paper. 

“Where did you come up with the name Wren?” Cara asked after a few seconds of silence.   
“Well, my mom grew up in Central America for the first six or so years of her life. She didn’t remember a lot, but she remembered all of the Wrens that were in her backyard. She would tell me about them all the time, especially when she got older and couldn’t remember a whole lot. Wrens were one of the only things she could remember.” Din smiled sadly. “I’ve never seen a Wren. I’d like to someday,” he added. 

“Guess you’ll need to take a trip to Central America someday. I didn’t know your mom was from Central America. What country? Was the culture part of your childhood?”   
“She was born in Honduras. And no, she moved to The States when she was six or seven. First to Florida, then to Colorado where she met my dad. That’s where I grew up.” Din explained. “I don’t think she remembered enough to really engrave Honduras culture into our house.” 

“She didn’t even speak Spanish with you guys?” Cara asked.   
“She did sometimes, but I was stubborn and refused to learn, despite my parents trying to teach me. I can get around I guess. Street names, bathroom, greetings and some small talk I can speak. Definitely not fluent though. I was able to use it in the NYPD and I’ve used it while in the Guild sometimes which is cool,” Din added. Cara nodded. 

“That’s good! Makes sense, a lot of people speak Spanish in New York. Wren’s a nice name though. I like it. Are you going to use it with her?” Din sighed, taking the last gulp of his coffee, the bagel long gone. He was tempted to eat the banana too, but most of the baby food was stuffed in bags in the trunk. And the few they had in hands reach for the baby were foods he wasn’t even sure she’d like. It’d be safest to have the banana on hand just in case. 

“I’m not sure. She’s not my kid, so it’s not my place to name her,” Din told her.   
“Dunno. Doesn’t seem like she has anyone left,” Cara shrugged. Din looked over at her.   
“Her parents could be alive. Who knows what Moff Gideon’s done to them.”   
“What if they aren’t alive? Based on what you’ve told me, it seems like Gideon really wants the kid. I’m sure he’ll try to eliminate anyone that gets in his way. If there are parents around, I’m sure they’d be the first ones to go.” Cara explained. Din sighed. Cara had a point. But, Din didn’t want to completely rule out the possibility yet. For right now, he was just watching the kid. Like a babysitter. A messed up one, for sure, and in a very dangerous situation, but nonetheless, a babysitter. 

“I’d like to keep all possibilities open for now. There’s a chance, and best not get attached to the kid or have the kid get attached to me. If at least one parent is alive, attachment would just make everything more complicated.” Din said. Cara looked like she wanted to say more, but was holding back. Din was perfectly fine with that. Cara was great and all, but this was just too many questions at one time.   
“Take a look at Gideon’s profiles.” Cara said after a minute or two. Din nodded, almost forgetting there were other papers besides the fake birth certificate. 

Din put the certificate in the glove box and stared at Moff Gideon’s papers in front of him. On the first page was a picture of him. It seemed old. The man in the picture looked a lot younger than the Gideon he had seen just a few days ago. Din read over his papers. There wasn’t a whole lot about his whereabouts after his scandal in the NYPD.   
“Damn, why is there so little information? It has his scandal about leading the officers into a back alley where all of Gideon’s own officers were and then killing them all. From there, he did training with new officers he recruited in threatening ways. He would get them in the alleys like he did with the group of officers, but instead of killing them he forced them to join his forces. This part is just a rumor, but he apparently recruited a Doctor Rousin to work on human experimentation to make a force of Super Soldiers far more advanced than regular soldiers.” Din looked up from the papers.   
“I-I know him.” Din said quietly. Cara looked over at him. “That was the doctor I saw with Gideon. He took the kid!” Din exclaimed. He kept reading.   
“There had been no new news of these Super Soldiers. However, Moff Gideon and his current officers have been raiding towns for money and other resources. They’ve also been obtaining certain individuals. It’s unknown if they’re killed or being used for experimentation but over the past few months there have been reports of missing persons.” Din finished. 

“Wow. Just, wow,” Cara sighed. Din nodded.   
“Yeah, one of these ‘persons’ must be the kid. I wish they had names listed!” He sighed.   
“Moff Gideon is a mysterious man. It’s been impossible to track him down for so long. He’s good at what he does.” Cara said. “But, you’re smart Din. I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Besides, they probably couldn’t have gone too far since they’re trying to get the kid,”   
“Yeah I guess,” Din nodded. 

The drive continued in silence with Cara driving and Din looking out of the window for another thirty minutes. Then, Cara announced that she had to pee so they took the next exit for a service station. It was a better pitstop than most. A big food court by the looks on the outside, Din thought as they pulled in. As Cara was finding a parking spot, Din heard some shuffling in the back. He turned around and saw the kid yawning and stretching out. Her big brown eyes looked around the car, taking in her surroundings. She looked at Din, and then held her arms out to him with a coo. Din got out of the car with Cara and grabbed the backpack he had in the backseat with baby essentials. He unbuckled the kid, which wasn’t as difficult as strapping her in. 

“Hello, sleepyhead!” Cara laughed, looking at the baby’s dazed eyes as she looked at Cara with wonder. “Thank you for finally joining us!” The kid smiled, a pacifier still in her mouth as the trio walked in.   
“Oh, thank goodness,” Cara mumbled when she found the bathrooms, rushing into the ladies’s room. Din went into the men’s room and was relieved to see a changing table. He was too uncomfortable to go into the Family Bathroom door. He changed the kid, who was slowly starting to wake up more. She had a dark green moose with orange antlers tucked underneath her arm, which Din guessed Cara had put there when he was sleeping as he hadn’t given it to her when he buckled her in. She seemed to take a liking to it though, as her elbow was currently crushing the moose’s neck. 

When he was finished, he walked out of the bathroom and saw Cara waiting.   
“Could you um, hold her,” Din asked, “so I can go to the bathroom?” This was certainly not a situation he would imagine himself in a few days ago. Yet, here he was. Cara nodded with a laugh, taking the baby and the backpack. Din practically ran to the bathroom, sighing in relief. The coffee he had earlier had quickly made its way back to his bladder. 

Once they made it back to the car, Din tried to feed the kid a new baby food. Chicken and peas was the name of it.   
“Alright kid,” Din sighed, taking the purple baby spoon and scooping some of the gloppy pureed food onto it and holding it up to the kid’s lips. She seemed a bit unsure at first, but eventually opened her mouth to taste it. She smacked her lips a little, and then smiled. Some of the food came out, which Din caught with a napkin. He really should have put a bib on her. 

The kid ate all the chicken and peas, and the entire banana after. It had cost them some time and Din apologized, but Cara waved him off and assured him being late came with taking care of a kid. Din thanked her and took the wheel from there. 

The rest of the drive went smoothly. They stopped a couple more times for food and bathroom breaks, and an additional one or two times because the kid got fussy in her car seat. The car was rarely silent, as Cara and Din kept finding things to talk about. Rarely was the talk about Moff Gideon, but instead catching the other one up on their own lives. Din felt himself relax a little for the first time since getting the kid. It was nice to not have to worry, even if it was for just a couple of hours. 

Din sighed in relief when he saw the ‘Welcome to Sorgan’ sign. As fun as the ride was, it was still a long car ride and even though Din was used to them at this point, it didn’t make them any less boring or uncomfortable after awhile.   
“You’re right, it is small here,” Din noted, staring at the small stories and monuments. Though, as they started driving down neighborhoods, he saw broken doors, windows, graffiti, and other forms of vandalization on the houses.   
“This is the work of the bandits I was telling you about,” Cara said, seeming to notice Din’s wandering eyes. 

They pulled into a motel parking lot called ‘Mid-Town Motel’. Cara and Din got out, and he grabbed the baby, being gentle as he positioned the sleeping child on his shoulder. He hoped the cool Maine breeze wouldn’t wake her up, as she was used to the cool car. Luck seemed to be on Din’s side though, as she barely stirred. They entered and went up to the front desk. 

Cara had to speak for Din though after a couple seconds of silence, because he couldn’t take his eyes off of the beautiful woman standing behind the desk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Holidays are probably different this year for a lot of people, but I hope people are still finding ways to enjoy them. I hope this extra long chapter (over 5,000 words!) puts a smile on your face! This will probably be the last chapter I post before the new year, so happy new year to you all too! Let’s see where 2021 takes us 😬


	7. The Bandits

“Hi, how can I help you this evening?” The woman behind the desk asked. Upon further inspection, Din saw that the nametag on her all-black uniform said ‘Omera’.  
“Hi, I’m Marshal Carasynthia Dune. I was sent here from New York to work on a case involving bandits in this area. I need a room, please. We’re not exactly sure how long we’ll be staying,” She explained. Cara was doing all the talking, which he was glad about. Din wasn’t sure how to even explain the situation. Omera nodded.  
“Oh, wonderful! It’s about time we get rid of them. Terrorizing and raiding towns, destroying people’s livelihoods. . .it’s just awful,” she grumbled, typing away at her computer. She then looked up at Din, and he froze, feeling awkward with the heavily sleeping (and drooling) kid in his arms. “This your. . .husband?” She asked. Cara sputtered out an airy laugh.  
“No, no, no. Work partner. He’s come to help me, and also look into Sorgan a bit more. He’s been looking into moving here for awhile now,” she casually lied, not missing a single beat.  
“Right. Well, if I could see your I.Ds please. I can give you guys the first night free and any days after will be discounted for up to a week.” She explained. Cara handed over her badge and Din his, though he had a bit of trouble as he tried not to jostle the baby around too much. “Your baby is adorable,” Omera smiled, taking the badges and inspecting them. Din simply smiled back, feeling quite awkward and oddly flustered around this woman. He was normally very calm and collected, but right now his mind was racing about what to say to her, if anything at all. 

“Alright, you should be all set-”  
“Mama?” Omera turned around, stopping mid-sentence. A little girl stood behind her, a worried look on her face. The girl was a carbon copy of her mother; big, dark brown eyes, slightly tan skin, and long, thick brown hair that was braided. She looked between Omera, Din and Cara.  
“Yes, baby?” Omera asked quietly. Her daughter walked over to her and wrapped her arms tightly around her mother’s waist. Din could barely make out the words, “I had a nightmare” in the girl’s hushed voice. 

Omera stood up straight again after mumbling, “okay, just a second.” She walked over to a small cabinet and pulled out a key, and handed it to Cara. “Room 16A. Let me know if there’s anything I can get you. Unfortunately we don’t have room or breakfast service here, but there’s a little cafe and some other restaurants just up the road. Both of you can get a good meal pretty cheap. Oh, would you like a crib for the baby?” Omera talked quickly, her daughter still wrapped around her, big eyes still looking between Din and Cara.  
“We already have one, but thank you.” Din answered, finally finding his words again. Omera nodded with a smile.  
“Oh, how rude of me.” She lifted one of her hands from her daughter’s back and held it first out to Din, then Cara. “My name is Omera. This is my daughter, Winta,” she smiled. Cara shook her hand.  
“Din,” he spoke up, realising everyone had said their name except him. 

Omera bid them both goodnight before leading Winta out the door where her daughter had come in. And as he and Cara walked to their room, he wondered if the mother and daughter lived here. He also wondered if she had other employees here. She had been the only employee he had seen so far, but the motel looked clean and nicely kept. Surely Omera couldn’t have been the only one cleaning the place. The place was no hotel, but it was big enough where a cleaning team would be welcome. 

Entering their room, 16A, Din was relieved to find two separate beds. Neither he nor Cara had asked specifically for two beds, but it seemed as though the fact that Din was in fact not Cara’s husband and only a work partner prompted Omera to believe it would be incredibly awkward to have to sleep in one bed. He turned on the lights as they walked in. The room was nothing special; white painted walls, two twin beds with flowery duvets, and a small closet. There was a window towards the back of the room with a table in front of it, a vase of flowers on top. There was also a bureau in front of the beds with a microwave and coffee maker on top. 

Din carefully laid the kid on the center of his bed, plopping a few pillows around her in case she started rolling. He couldn’t help but instinctively run a hand over her back a few times and even once through the soft wisps of her dark brown, curly hair. He didn’t know why he felt the need to do that, but in the back of his mind he was hoping that the movement would miraculously wake her up. At any other time, Din would be grateful for the peace, but because of the little stunt she pulled just this morning Din couldn’t help but worry. Not only was this an abnormal amount of sleep even for a baby, but he was almost 100 percent certain her sleep schedule would now be fucked. Not that Din had really attempted to make one for her in the short span of time she was in his care, but he had started to notice the specific time in the afternoon when she would get tired and have a nap, and the time she usually went to sleep at night and even when she woke up in the morning.

“Is she alright? She’s been sleeping for awhile,” Cara noted as she walked by him. Din stared at the sleeping baby for a moment, but nothing seemed out of place.  
“Yeah, I think so,” he answered before following Cara out to the car to grab their belongings. It seemed highly unlikely the kid was going to wake up in the next 5 minutes, so Din felt like it was safe to leave her on the bed. 

Din and Cara had everything they needed in the room within minutes. Both were dead tired, so Din set up the kid’s crib while Cara showered, carefully transferring the baby from the bed to the crib. He also premade a bottle of milk. He left most of his belongings in his bag next to the bed, and he left most of the baby stuff in the bag too. He also was able to set up the ‘high chair’ at the table, which was really just a baby-sized seat with buckles and metal latches that could attach to the table. Din was weary of it at first, as he doubted it could support a wriggly baby, but Cara had reassured him it would be fine, plus all the other high chairs were too big to travel with. 

Din took the next shower, feeling so much better after being in the car all day. He brushed his teeth and once again inspected his foot, which was still intact from the kid’s magic trick. He once again ran through the routine of checking for any abnormal bumps under the skin, but found nothing. He put some socks on to avoid questioning from Cara. When he exited, Cara was already in her bed, texting. Din had no shirt on, as he usually slept with no shirt, and Cara looked up at him briefly.  
“You’re making me blush, Djarin,” she deadpanned, going back to her texting. Din rolled his eyes, but he was smiling.  
“I know you’ve had your eyes on me since the day we met,” he replied, and she scoffed.  
“Maybe in your dreams,” she laughed, but then a few moments later she sighed, resting her phone on the table. “We’ll discuss the bandit situation in the morning; I’m too tired,” Cara groaned. “We’ll try this arrangement tonight, but if that kid wakes me up, as cute as she is, Din, we may have to work out something else,” she rolled over and turned off the light. Din simply replied with okay, exhausted as well before getting into his bed and closing his eyes. 

Unfortunately for Din, his sleep was soon interrupted. The next time he opened his eyes, it was still pitch black out. He was almost used to waking up to the baby’s cries at least once a night, but tonight was different. Instead of cries he heard babbles. Din breathed out a sigh of relief. The kid was okay. She sounded fine, happy even, according to the babbles eliciting from her mouth. However, the relief was short lived. The kid was probably full of energy now. Din was about to attempt to just roll over and go back to sleep in hopes she would just tire herself out and go back to sleep, but then he remembered the other person in the room. 

Din sat up and looked over at Cara. He could barely make out her body in the dark, but he concluded that she was still sleeping. The man sighed and slipped on a shirt. He was sure he had put it on backwards, but he could care less. His eyes were heavy with sleep and his body begged him to lay down again as he stood up and walked over to the crib.  
“Ah!” The baby squealed once she saw Din, reaching her arms up for him, a pacifier in one of her hands. She looked awake as ever, brown eyes wide open and bouncing on her bottom. Her hands were once again clutching the green moose with orange antlers. Din sighed again but lifted the baby up. No turning back now. He somehow managed to balance the baby, room key, bottle, and a children’s book in his hands as he exited the room, softly closing it behind him. The lights illuminated the hallway, and Din winced as his eyes adjusted to the light. 

“It’s late, kid,” Din mumbled as he walked down the hall. The baby seemed to disagree though, wide awake as she stared in awe at the things they passed by, a moose antler in her mouth. “We’re both supposed to be sleeping. Ya know, sleep?” Din spoke as they entered the lobby, no sign of Omera or any other employees. “I guess you’re allergic to that, huh?” There were a couple couches, a coffee table, and a television. Din sat on one of the couches with the baby, setting down the bottle, key, and book on the table. The baby turned so she was facing Din, planting both of her tiny and saliva-covered hands on Din cheeks and babbling and smiling at him.The moose dropped from her grasp, laying abandoned on his lap. Din shook his head at her, but couldn’t help but smile as well. Babies’ laughs were contagious, what could he say? “You’re gonna kill me, kid.” Din said. “You had me worried there. Seems that little magic trick wore you right out.” Din said, readjusting his hands on the baby so she wouldn’t fall off of his lap. His words seemed to fall on deaf ears though, as the kid was trying to turn her body to reach for something. Din leaned over and picked up the bottle. “This? You want this?” He asked, but the baby continued to reach, letting out little whines. Din set down the bottle and grabbed the book. The baby smiled, grabbing at the desired item. 

“Alright, alright. Hold on,” Din let out a small laugh. He readjusted her so her back was to Din’s chest, moose once again in her grap. He opened the book, resting his cheek on her head for a moment. She smelled like a mix of baby shampoo and milk. It was a lovely soothing smell, and ever since he bathed her yesterday, Din found himself enjoying and even craving the smell.  
“Okay. The Rainbow Fish.” Din started, taking note of the tiny hand clutching his wrist. 

Din read through the whole book, having to stop more than once to yawn. He closed the book and looked down at the baby, only to see her brown eyes still wide open. Din sighed, leaning his head back on the couch. He was so tired. He was tempted to just go back to the room and sleep through the baby’s babbles. Screw Cara and her beauty sleep. 

“C’mon kid. You’re not even a little tired?” Din asked in an exasperated voice. In response, the kid messily flipped the book over and sat back against Din’s chest. Din sat there, confused, until the little rat slapped her hand against the cover and wind. “No. Nope, not happening. I’m not reading it again. You’re cute, but not that cute,” he complained, tossing the book on the table. The kid looked up at him with concern in her eyes, whining. “No, no. Kid, please. It’s such a long book.” Din complained, and when the whines became dangerously close to sounding like cries, Din huffed and leaned over to grab the book. “Okay, god, fine! But you’re going to sleep right after,” he sighed, opening the book again as the kid settled back down on his chest. 

Din got about halfway through the book, desperately hoping the kid would fall asleep with no luck, when he heard a door open. He turned his neck quickly, but calmed down once he saw Omera.  
“Hi! Sorry, did I scare you?” She asked, walking towards the pair. Din shook his head.  
“No. Did we wake you up?”  
“Oh, goodness, no. I was just closing up here.” She smiled. Din checked his watch. 11:00. He really didn’t sleep for that long. “Baby wake up?” She smiled at the little one, who was busy looking through the pictures, losing Din’s place.  
“Yeah. She slept almost the whole car ride here from New York. She’s wide awake now,” he sighed, taking this as an opportunity to to switch the book for the bottle. The baby protested at first, but sucked on the bottle when it reached her lips, grasping Din’s finger with her one tiny hand as she drank.  
“Yes, it’s difficult to keep them on a schedule. Tomorrow won’t be fun though; she’ll probably be overtired,” she smiled sadly. Din nodded. He’d be overtired and so will she. He didn’t know how he was going to stay focused with the bandits tomorrow. “What’s her name?” Omera asked after a few minutes. Din looked down at the baby, saying a victory in his head as he saw her eyes start to close.  
“Wren,” he answered, thinking about his mother.  
“What a lovely name,” she answered, walking a couple steps closer and leaning down to gently grasp the baby’s ankle.

She stood up straight again. “Thank you for coming to help with the bandits. It’s been so hard, trying to deal with them. Poor Winta, she’s been getting nightmares so frequently. Our house, the motel and her school haven’t been raided yet, but she’s seen them in stores and some of her friends’ houses have been raided. It’s so awful.” She said, covering her mouth and staring at the floor with worry. So she didn’t live in the motel, Din thought. He didn’t quite know what to say, so he simply nodded his head. He didn’t feel like he was helping. 

“Well, now that she’s asleep I’m sure that you want to gut some shuteye as well. Goodnight, Din.” Omera smiled, beginning to walk away.. Din looked down and sure enough, the last of the milk was dribbling down her chin, her eyes closed. Din wiped off the milk before standing, gathering his things.  
“Goodnight, Omera,” he nodded before walking away from the beautiful woman. 

When he opened the door to their room, Cara was still sleeping. He carefully lowered the baby down into the crib, holding his breath in hopes she wouldn’t wake up. He watched her for a couple more minutes, running a hand over her back a couple times, before heading to his own bed. When Din’s head hit the pillow, he almost immediately went to sleep. 

“Can you give me any sort of image of these bandits?” Din asked the next morning. He was talking with a sketch artist and a resident of Sorgan.  
“Well, there seems to be about six of them. Most of them were wearing those face masks that only show the eyes and a bit of the nose. So, they all look the same to me.” The man explained, wringing his hands together with nerves. Din sighed. 

The morning was going. . .alright to be optimistic. He and Cara met with the local police in the morning to gain any new information on these bandits. There are a total of eight people in the group. They have gotten some leads on where their base might be. They raid at night, having raided ten stores and four houses. Luckily, no has been killed, although two girls and one boy have gone missing since these raids have started. 

As the sketch artist and the man continued to talk, Din walked over to Cara who had just finished talking with a detective.  
“Have anything new?” He asked. Cara sighed, slapping her notepad on her thigh.  
“Not anything set in stone really. You?”  
“Same. But, I’m thinking our best bet is to take the locations of where their base might be and try to gain on them more.” Cara nodded.  
“Yeah, that’s good. I’m thinkin’ we hone in on these locations with just the two of us, but we’ll have a few police cars not far from here in case things get messy. Because they all dress the same we don’t know how many there are. For all we know they could be sending different groups in every time.” Din nodded, running a hand through his hair. 

Cara and Din proposed their plan to the local police officers, who agreed to go with them. They both got handed bullet-proof vests, as well as guns, walkie-talkies, and flashlights. The team of two used an undercover cop car to hopefully not seem suspicious.  
“Okay so the first location is about five miles from here,” Din read from the notepad. “We may have to go into the woods a bit to find their hideout.”  
The pair drive for a while, the forests and more rural parts of Maine becoming the scenery before their eyes. Although, Din could barely enjoy the scenery, despite the beauty. He kept looking for anyone who resembled one of the bandits at all. So far, no one. Then again, it was broad daylight so they would probably be hiding.  
“Alright,” Cara grunted, getting out of the car once they arrived. “This is only a general location so we may have to scout around for a bit. Though, this is the most suspicious location according to the officers, so it should be promising.”  
“How do they gauge that?”  
“Well, some of the officers and detectives have tried following them once they leave the raids. They travel on either bikes or on foot. We haven’t found a motor vehicle yet. Despite that, they’re good at hiding. But, they’ve seen the bandits in this part of Maine often. Then again, there’s always a chance they went farther north. The forces can only follow them for so long.” Cara explained quietly. “Your walkie-talkie work?” Din tested it.  
“Yep,”  
“Alright, you scout around over there, and I’ll go over here.” She whispered, pointing with her finger. “Tell me if you hear or see anyone from the descriptions. Then we’ll get the police cars over here ASAP. 

Din ventured off in the direction of the trees. Despite doing this for years, the feeling of adrenaline in his veins never ceased in these situations. His senses heightened, walking quietly as he listened for anything out of the ordinary. He drew his gun out, holding it up and near his head. Suddenly, he got the feeling somebody was watching him. He stopped in the middle of a grassy area, hidden in the trees. He turned around fast, and then he was harshly grabbed, a gloved and dirty hand covering his mouth. Then, he heard the sound of a gun being cocked dangerously close to his head. 

Din’s breathes were quick, eyes darting around in search of others, but finding no one. Shit, he thought. Thinking fast, Din kicked his foot back, successfully kicking his capturer in the crotch. The gun moved away from his head and he was released. He turned around quickly, grabbing the gun from his belt and holding it up to the stranger.  
“Sorgan Police, hands up!” He said loudly. His eyes met a young man’s. Fear didn’t lace his eyes. He looked up at Din for a split second before he tore off in the other direction, sprinting. “Hey!” Din shouted, running after him. He pulled out his walkie-talkie. “Cara, I think I found one of them. I’m chasing after him now,” he said between breaths. He immediately got a response. “Okay, I’m on my way over. I’ll call the other police too,” 

Din continued running, his only target being the head of red hair between the trees. He panted, sweat dripping down his face. He tripped over roots but kept going. Until, a board from out of nowhere collided into his forehead before he could stop, sending him to the ground.  
“Agh! Motherfucker!” Din groaned, sitting up and holding a hand to his forehead. No blood. Though, there would no doubt be some swelling for the next few days. 

He looked up from his place on the ground, being met with six masked faces, and two without, all with guns cocked toward him. Din, knowing he was outnumbered, slowly put his hands up, trying to look into their eyes and also praying that Cara and other police officers would be here any minute.  
“Who are you?” One of them -a female- asked him. He swallowed, his mouth dry both from nerves and the amount of running he just did.  
“My name is Din Djarin. I’m working with the Sorgan Police Department to investigate a group of bandits that have been raiding their town,” Din explained slowly. 

By sheer luck, which was not one of Din’s specialities, Cara and a group of about fifteen officers in tow showed up just then, guns raised as well.  
“Sorgan Police Department. We will not shoot unless you shoot. Right now, we just want to bring you back to the department to ask you some questions, okay?” An officer, whose name was Shawn, explained. Silence followed.  
“Guys, run!” One of them shouted, before all eight of them darted in different directions, But, the police were faster. They, along with Din and Cara ran after them, shooting down the bandits one by one with bullets only made to stun them. They would need to question them later, especially regarding the three missing people, and they would be no use dead. 

Din chased after a pair of them, cleverly leading them to a dead end. Seeming to know their fate, and they both turned around. It was a man and woman: the two without masks.  
“Wait, wait!” The man shouted, putting his hands above his head, the woman following suit. “J-just, wait,” he whimpered, slowly, eyeing Din and his gun, the man pulled his gun out and dropped it on the ground, kicking it away. The woman once again followed suit. “Please, just, don’t shoot, we’ll cooperate,” he whispered. Din was suspicious, but without their weapons he had no reason to stun them. 

With the gun still pointed at them, Din led them back to the open field where Cara and the other officers were waiting. He guided them into a car, handing the policeman their weapons. “Meet back at the station,” a policeman said. Din and Cara nodded. 

Cara had questioned Din about the man and the woman he brought back. He simply told her what had happened, and she was as equally as confused. When they made it back, he saw Omera waiting a little ways from the police station with Winta and the kid. He got out of the car and decided it was okay to leave Cara and fifteen police officers with eight bandits. 

He walked over to them, and the tiny girl in Omera’s arms reached out for him when she saw Din. Like Omera had predicted the night before, she had been fussy and cranky today. Din had been slightly weary to leave her with Omera as the baby fussed in his arms, but she had assured him that with raising Winta and watching most of the town’s kids of all ages, she could handle it. That had eased Din’s nerves slightly, but he felt a little more relieved when he hefted the little tyke into his arms. He was sweaty and gross, but that didn’t stop her from reaching a tiny hand up to his bruise, questioning babbles following.  
“Oh my God, what happened to you?” Omera asked worriedly. The bruise probably looked awful.  
“I was uh, hit with a board I think.” He said awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. 

Din once again felt eyes on him, so he turned around, cradling the baby close to his chest in case of danger. Instead, he saw the man and woman from before; the bandits. When he fully turned around, the baby’s heading peeking out from under his chin, the woman gasped, eyes tearing up. The man looked just as shocked, wrapping his arms around the woman. Well, as best he could considering they were both handcuffed. 

“J-Jena?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiii! So sorry for the almost-month-long wait. Christmas and into New Year's was busy, and then I got even more busy when school started again. But, I hope this chapter makes up for it! Hopefully the next one will come out sooner. 
> 
> Also thinking of changing the title of this story from Birdie to Little Bird. The name Wren and an upcoming name in the story both mean Little Bird. . .what do you think? 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! :)


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